IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - December 2013 - 170

Congressional Robotics Caucus
Briefing on Robots and Job Creation
By Raj Madhavan

rom manufacturing to self-driving cars, robotics and automation have made a huge impact as
a transformative technology,
fostering both innovation and the competitiveness of the United States and
other countries in the global marketplace. Unfortunately, people have the
misperception that robotics and automation in general would eliminate jobs
instead of creating them.
The IEEE RAS Industrial Activities
Board (IAB) and IEEE-USA organized
a briefing in conjunction with the U.S.
Congressional Robotics Caucus to
address these issues at the Capitol
Building in Washington, D.C. on 25
July 2013. The Congressional bipartisan Robotics Caucus, cochaired by
Congressman Mike Doyle (Pennsylvania) and Congressman Phil Gingrey
(Georgia), was formed in 2007 to focus
on major issues facing the nation's
robotics industry and related emerging
technology. Titled "Harnessing New
Robotics Technologies for Job Creation," the briefing presented a firsthand account of views, opinions, and
real-world experiences of experts and
practitioners from industry and academia, to demonstrate how robots are
contributing to job growth and sustainability of U. S. industries.
Raj Madhavan, vice president of
RAS IAB, outlined the importance of
this topic that is increasingly part of the
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MRA.2013.2287129
Date of publication: 6 December 2013

170

IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE

Figure 1. Marc Apter IEEE-USA President, Jeff Burnstein, David Bourne, Raj Madhavan
and Mitchell Weiss in front of the US capitol building.

national conversation and presented an
overview of the various activities of
RAS to the audience. Jeff Bernstein,
president of the Association for
Advancing Automation, emphasized
the point that automation can not only
save jobs but more importantly can
grow jobs. He presented various examples of small- and medium-scale companies that have been successful in
deploying robots and provided supporting statistics from a recent study.
Mitchell Weiss, chief executive officer
of Seegrid, argued that robots make
manufacturing plants more productive
and efficient and that robots bring to

DECEMBER 2013

the table the fact that they lower capital
costs and create jobs that would not
even exist in their absence. David
Bourne of Carnegie Mellon University
talked about robotics and automation
technologies that need to be developed
so that people and robots can work
faster together (Figure 1).
The briefing was well attended by
congressional staffers and the general
public. It ended in a spirited discussion
between the presenters and the audience
members. All presentations are available
for download from http://www.roboticscaucus.org/Schedule/2013/RoboticsCaucus25July2013.asp.

http://www.robotics http://www.caucus.org/Schedule/2013/Robotics

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - December 2013